Page:The History of San Martin (1893).djvu/479

Rh brig of war Balcarce was the only vessel saved, but the Royalists were expecting two Spanish frigates.

Bolívar issued terrible decrees for the evacuation of Lima, which were not obeyed, but on the 10th February Congress appointed him Dictator.

Monet occupied Lima without resistance, but did not remain there. He left Rodil in command at Callao, and returned to the Highlands, taking the officers of the former garrison with him as prisoners.

These officers, 160 in number, were forced to march on foot up the mountain passes to Jauja. On the third night, as they were passing through a narrow defile, two of them, by preconcerted arrangement, slipped into a ditch where they could not be seen, the two who were next them concealing their retreat so that the evasion was not discovered till they reached the next halt. Monet ordered two of the prisoners to be shot in place of those who had escaped. They were all drawn up in line by General Camba, and told to draw lots, which were presented to them in a helmet. Several lots had been drawn blank, when two officers stepped forward saying that they were the men who had concealed the escape of the fugitives. With one exception all the other officers called for the drawing to go on, but Camba decided that these two should pay the forfeit of their lives, and they were shot.

One of them, Domingo Millan, was a native of Tucuman, and of middle age. He drew out from the lining of his uniform coat the medals of Tucuman and Salta, pinned them on his breast, and died shouting, "Viva la Patria!" The other, Manuel Prudon, was a native of Buenos Ayres, and only twenty-four years of age. He died with the calmness of a martyr, shouting, "Viva Buenos Ayres!"

Bolívar had fallen dangerously ill at his head-quarters at Pativilca; for six days he lay unconscious. When he was yet in the first stage of convalescence, news reached him of the mutiny of Callao, and of the treason of Torre-Tagle. Mosquera went to visit him, and found him seated in a rocking-chair in the orchard, his head tied up in a